He Knows
by Celery Sticks
Summary: "He knew he would never end up with Starfire. That didn't mean it didn't tear him up inside every time he was reminded of it."


**Hey. This was just a quickie, so I apologize if there are mistakes. I just had the urge to write a little something for my favorite heterosexual couple; I didn't mean for it to sound as angsty as it does.**

**This is not how I personally feel about this couple; I happen to think they would work well together, if they each grow up a little more and decide to go against the canon. **

**Enjoy!**

Beast Boy hated it whenever one of his fan girls asked him if Robin and Starfire were dating. He absolutely hated it.

He hated it because every time he went out with one of his fan girls, he was trying to get away from the fact that Robin and Starfire made the perfect couple. He was trying to get away from the fact that he was in hopelessly in love with the Tamaranean princess, and that there was no way in Hell he'd ever get to be with her.

He'd take another girl out to dinner, or to a movie, or for a walk in the park because he was desperate for a distraction. But every time he went out, he'd look at the girl (whose name he could usually never remember) and think of how much better she'd look with red hair, or sometimes if the girl had green eyes he would sit and silently compare them to a certain bubbly alien's.

It ate away at him from the inside out.

So whenever a fan girl would look at him with those big, hyperactive fan girl eyes and ask him "So like, are Robin and Starfire going out? They should totally go out, they are just so perfect together!" he'd hide his frown and laugh as he silently seethed with envy and despair on the inside. He usually succeeded, (he was good at hiding behind his smile) but there was one incident he'd never forget.

He took this one girl, Jenna, out to lunch one day and all she talked about was 'Jump City's Number One Couple'. How cute they were together, how their personalities complemented each other's, how adorable their children would be… Beast Boy hadn't even noticed his hands clenching until he'd nicked himself with claws he hadn't meant to grow. It was horrible.

But then she had to go and make it worse. Much, much worse.

She'd told him about an online chat group she was a part of that frequently discussed the titans as if they were characters in a TV show. Especially their relationships with one another, fictional or otherwise.

First, she'd told him that a lot of people seemed to think he and Raven would make a good couple, and that had made him laugh. Raven and him, together? They could barely stand being in the same room with each other, forget a relationship. Raven despised physical contact too, which didn't help. She barely let Starfire near her, and everyone in Jump City knew how freely Starfire could share her embrace.

His laughter made the girl angry (maybe she had secretly supported Beast Boy and Raven as a couple), because she had stopped talking and instead looked at him with childish disdain.

That was the starting point of a downward spiral that left Beast Boy in perhaps the foulest mood he'd ever experienced.

The girl had leaned in, her hands spread on the cold steel table as she looked Beast Boy right in the eye… and her words grated in his ears and tore into his soul.

"What's so funny? It's not like you and Starfire could ever be together! Her and Robin are meant for each other, and even if they weren't she definitely wouldn't end up with you! Why would she want you when she could have any man in this whole city, scratch that, the entire super hero community! You're just a pathetic little green freak and you should be lucky people are nice enough to think you could manage a relationship with Raven, who's probably still waiting for her first kiss!"

Beast Boy had felt his jaw hanging open in shock, and he'd stared in horror at Jenna as she leaned back against her chair and crossed her arms with a frown on her face.

After the shock came despair as her words sunk in and Beast Boy took every one as truth. Then came the anger. Barely registering what he was doing, Beast Boy had stood up with a roar and brought the table with him, everything crashing down after it including his date. He transformed into an eagle and flew straight up, away from the horrible creature that reminded him of everything he already knew.

He knew he would never end up with Starfire. That didn't mean it didn't tear him up inside every time he was reminded of it.

He'd flown straight home, not even bothering to use the door; he'd crashed through his window, locked his door from the inside and, because he was still just a child, he cried. He cried out his frustrations, his pain, his envy, his pure unadulterated agony over the love for the beautiful alien that always made him laugh even though she never understood his jokes.

He couldn't compete with Robin. Robin was handsome, debonair, strong, and aggravatingly mysterious. Plus, the two of them (Robin ad Starfire, that is) had a natural chemistry that Beast Boy didn't have with the Tamaranean; he could make her laugh but he couldn't make her smile the way Robin did. She didn't worry about him like she worried about Robin.

She didn't care about him the way she cared about Robin.

When he finished crying, it was dark outside. He didn't have the strength to make himself dinner like he did every night, because everyone else ate real meat that Beast Boy couldn't stomach. So instead he climbed into bed, and tried to sleep. When that didn't work, he turned himself into a possum and forced himself into a catatonic state, just to get away from the harsh reality of it all.

And the next morning, he hid behind his smile and told them all that he had eaten some bad tofu the day beforehand and it had reared its ugly head last night. He thought up some lame excuse for the broken window not too long after, and Cyborg never questioned him.

His smile only ever faltered when Starfire hugged him close, and wished him a speedy recovery. His hands stayed at his sides only through the strongest force of willpower.

His passion for his teammate never died, no matter how many times he wished it so.

And it was a long time before he had the courage to go out again, this time making sure to screen each girl carefully before taking them out, and never to that same restaurant he'd taken Jenna.

It hurt him just too much.


End file.
